Galena Race Report (finally)

OK - I'm finally getting around to the race report... Right after the race I drove from Galena to O'Hare for a Saturday flight to Orlando and returned Wednesday. Saturday was an IMOO training ride in Verona, WI, Sunday was Bike the Drive and today was Ridge Run. It's been a hectic week.

Last year the Galena Triathlon was my first real riding in hills larger than overpasses. I normally race at a cadence of 100-105 rpm, so when I first hit the hills last year thats what I did. It "seemed" to work, but I wasn't going very fast. Around mile 4 a woman from the wave behind me flew past going up a hill. It was a huge wake up call - not because she was a woman, but because she was going twice as fast as me - obviously there was something terribly wrong with my technique. Over the next several miles I determined that a lower cadence produced much higher speeds. Lesson learned.

This year, Galena was going to be a bit different. First, I had trained with a program throughout the winter. Second, Scott, Michelle, Laura and I had gone to Galena three weeks before the race to practice the hills.

For race weekend the Human Racers (Chris, Laura, Michelle, Scott, Tom and I) arrived in Galena on Friday to setup out T1's and T2's. The water was much warmer than last year, and the swim course had been lengthen appropriately (it was very short last year due the cold water), I had a new full-sleeve wet suit, so I went out for a practice swim Friday afternoon. Everything felt great.

My plan for this race was to test my new limits. Try to find out how deep I could go on the bike without blowing.

Race morning came and the weather was perfect. The wind would be in our faces on the bike, but it wasn't too bad and it was WAY better than our training ride. We arrived at T1, performed our final setup and began the wait for our starts. I was in wave 19, 54 minutes behind the first wave.

The Swim

I was in the 50 and over wave. The swim started and three of us went straight off the front. By the time we hit the first turn we had established a nice group. Rounding the turn, I took a peek back and we were it. About 100 yards after the turn we encountered a struggling swimmer clinging to a ring buoy with a kayak nearby. This split up our group for a while. Then, just as we were getting back together we started swimming into the wave in front of us. When we rounded next buoy, heading back towards the swim finish, we were in the middle of wave 18. While it was fun to think that we had bridged the 3 minute gap in such a short swim, it was a lot of traffic to navigate. Coming out of the water I was third. I heard someone yell "GO DOUG!" which I later found out was Laura - THANKS LAURA!!

The Bike

This was what I was waiting for. What were the new limits? I had decided a long time ago that I am not going to race with watches, computers or power meters. They are great for training, but I wanted to race completely by feel - or as I put it "race blind". After the initial climb out of T1, I settled in for the grueling hills in the first 7 to 8 miles of the course. I was moving fine, but I was being careful not to blow. At about mile four my legs were feeling a little fatigued from the climbing, but I kept thinking that my race legs were going to kick in at any moment. At mile 6 my race legs arrived. I easily made the climb up "Jesus Saves" and put the hammer down. The rest of the ride was pure magic. A feeling I have never experienced on a bike. I was passing everyone in sight and literally flying. At one point I actually started laughing because I was absolutely flying and realized I would never have any idea of how fast I was going.

Near the end of the bike there is a nice downhill section with a tricky little S-turn. Normally I am conservative in this section. However, this year as I entered the section there was one rider in front of me and it was obvious he was going to take the whole road doing the turns. I either had to brake and stay behind him, or jump on the pedals and pass him before the first sharp turn. I jumped on the pedals, flew past him and stuck the turn. By now I knew I had entered a new world.

As I came into T2 I had not been passed by a single person. I had passed one of the other two swimmers early on the bike course, so that left one person in front of me. However, when I got to my bike row it looked empty... Now I wasn't certain if there was someone in front of me or not. I'm still not certain I understand this... I might have to re-think my T2 strategy next year... But, I had found out what I needed to know on the bike and it was off to the run

The Run

There is only one way to describe the first 1/2 mile of the run: F***! I made it 2/3 of the way up and I was the only person running, so I walked the next 100 yards. As I started running again I didn't press. I let the run legs come slowly instead of pushing it. If someone was out in front of me, so be it. When I got to the run turn around I immediately started looking for Chris Wickard. She was in the wave 3 minutes behind me and she is a complete tri-studette. I had assumed she might catch me at the end of the bike or on run. About 90 seconds after the turn around we saw each other and gave the wave. I had covered the gap, but assumed that she would gain a few seconds on the rest of the run and get me with total time.

The hill going towards the finish line is brutally steep (the same hill I walked). Magically, my legs opened and I was able to stride down the hill without the normal braking of a steep run. When I crossed the line I glanced at the time and subtracted 54 minutes = 1:36:xx. 7 minutes faster than last year - with a longer swim. All I can say is THANK YOU VISION QUEST! (If you are at all considering Vision Quest I highly recommend it).

The results were 39th OA and 2nd in AG. The final analysis was that I got beat by 78 seconds and 73 of those were in transition. We were 5 seconds apart in the disciplines.

Somehow the timing got messed up on the women's wave, because they had Chris 2 or 3 minutes behind me in total time. I am certain she beat me. Three minutes was our wave gap and I can't believe she was more than 3 minutes behind me at the finish. So in the end I consider it her win. Next time... ;-)

As we were sitting through the awards they started announcing the women's age groups. Suddenly Laura says "I got second!" and sure enough the next name they called was Laura Nolan! What a GREAT surprise!

In the end all of the Human Racers had a lot of fun, and that is what it is all about.

Next up: Buffalo Triathlon, Buffalo, MN

"Wind?" "What Wind?"

Joliet Sudden Century

Today was the annual Joliet Sudden Century Bike Ride. And, it was windy. Very windy. Gusty. Head winds, cross winds and an occasional tail wind. A "grip it and gut it" type of ride. At one point there was a long 14 mile stretch directly into the wind. Someone had very appropriately spray painted "Wind?" "What Wind?" on the road. Hey, if bike riding was all downhill and with the wind it would be boring, right? Hell no, it would be a blast!!! But it isn't and we we still love it.

Two years ago for this ride we had a mixed crew - Scott, Rick and I made the 70 mile route (Rick ruled the day and dragged Scott and I home). Last year we had six riders with Scott, Tom, Dennis and I making the 70 miles.

This year we had 22 people begin the ride from Frankfort and everyone made it to the Chicagoland Speedway for a "hot lap" around the track. WHAT A GREAT SHOWING. It is really fun having more and more people join our group.

Below is a group picture from the track. Just wait until we have our new club uniforms - we'll look awfully impressive!



BTW - I hit my days high of 37MPH on the race track, coming out of the back stretch with the tail wind. As I was heading into the last turn a wind gust nearly knocked me off the bike and scared the crap out of me.

After we rode around the track a few people headed back to Frankfort. However, a surprisingly large group continued on the 56/70/100 mile route to Elwood. When we got to Elwood things got a little confusing. Some of the riders stopped at the public restrooms in the park. Others, thinking they were on one of our Elwood training rides, missed a route turn and went to the BP for bathrooms and refreshments. Once everyone was back on course, we began the long grind from the west end of the route to the east end of the route - into a stiff east wind.

Keri - Always Smiling!


Pam- Also always smiling!


Dennis Runbubbarun- Daydreaming about running.


When we arrived in Monee there was still a large group of riders. I think the long grind from Elwood had zapped everyones legs, and there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for completing the extra loop for the full Century. In the end, 5 of us started out on the century loop... OK, time for a roll call of riders who completed the century... anybody? anybody? When Mike and I got south of Peotone we were all alone. Mike headed back to Crete and I rode from Peotone back to Frankfort... alone (sniff, sniff)... When I got back to Frankfort I still had a few miles to get in the FULL century and hooked with Jane, who also had a few more miles to get to 100. Together we finished the full 100 miles. Anybody? ;-)

Great ride everybody. So what do you think - 30 people next year?